High Flying with Monster Girls
by Rider Paladin
Summary: When a rash of deaths and disappearances start taking place around a stop where young men were supposed to be taken to attend Yokai Academy, Batman sends his first partner to investigate the murders - and into a dangerous, exciting . . . and bouncy new world. Will he survive amorous students and jealous rivals long enough to expose the murderer?


"High Flying with Monster Girls"

Chapter 1: "A Knight Among Monsters"

Disclaimer: Nightwing belongs to DC Comics and Warner Brothers and their related subsidiaries. Rosario + Vampire belongs to Akihisa Ikeda, Shonen Jump, Funimation, and VIZ Media. I make no money from using characters and settings related to, associated with, or appearing in either of those series and receive no other material compensation from using those characters and settings. I am simply writing this for personal enjoyment, both my own and hopefully that of my fans and readers.

Author's note: Well, my good friend and partner JOUNOUCHI-sama, who's been almost a saint to put up with me and my trying ways, convinced me that I should branch out and do a little DC as opposed to all the Marvel I've been on lately. For the record, my reluctance with DC has been largely to do with my discontent at the changes wrought by its New 52 reboot, but after two years, I'm about ready to let that go and try to do something with DC again. Now, there have been a few, emphasis on "few," Batman/Rosario + Vampire crossover fics, but I haven't seen anybody try to do a Rosario + Vampire X-over starring one of the Robins. I debated with myself and JOUNOUCHI-sama for a good bit about which Robin to use, but we settled on the original Robin, onetime Batman, and current Nightwing Richard John Grayson, a.k.a. "Dick" to his buddies.

How are we going to make this work, you ask? Watch and learn. Watch and learn.

* * *

A sleek black figure on an equally sleek black customized motorcycle rode into the bat cave hidden under Wayne Manor and used as the crime-fighting base for Gotham City's legendary Dark Knight. After securing the motorcycle in its parking space in the cave's vehicle bay, the black-clad figure removed his helmet, revealing the handsome, slightly tanned features of a dark-haired young man at the end of his teens, only slightly concealed by the bird-shaped domino mask over his eyes. He walked to the massive computer console being grimly watched by the imposing dark figure in front of it, said figure nearly completely concealed by a black cape and pointy-eared cowl.

"Dick," the figure greeted in a low rasp of a voice.

"Bruce," the black-clad young man answered.

"These disappearances and deaths in Japan," the pointy-eared figure, none other than the Batman himself, spoke up. "Do you know what they have in common?"

"They all happened around a mysterious bus stop?" Dick Grayson, formerly known as Robin and now called Nightwing, remarked.

"Yes," Batman confirmed. "A bus stop where the young men in question were supposed to wait for a bus to take them to a private boarding school called Yokai Academy."

"Yokai?" Nightwing repeated. "What kind of name for a school is that?"

"That's what you're going to find out," Batman stated. "Foul play is definitely not ruled out here. And according to John Constantine and Zatanna Zatara, neither is foul magic." He turned to look at Nightwing as his protégé walked closer to him and the computer console. Batman passed something small and silvery to Nightwing, who examined it briefly.

"I suppose it'll go well with my graduation ring," Nightwing remarked, his tone sardonic.

"It has warding seals etched into the metal," Batman explained. "To protect you from magic targeted at you with malicious intent. A gift from a friend."

"When you say malicious intent . . ." Nightwing started to say.

"Intent to control, injure, torment, or kill you," Batman clarified. "As long as you're wearing it or otherwise have it on your person, magic of that kind won't be able to affect you. The warding seals on that ring are very powerful."

"Well, then, I suppose I'd better get going," Nightwing said. "What are you going to tell Jason?"

"That he needs to work on his discipline," Batman replied.

"I meant about me leaving," Nightwing clarified.

"You're on a mission," Batman answered.

"Fine, then," Nightwing said, shrugging his shoulders. "It'll just be you and him. Great bonding opportunity."

"Uh-huh," Batman responded.

* * *

A scant few days later, Dick Grayson was dressed in a Yokai Academy boys' uniform, a green blazer over a white dress shirt and khaki pants with red tie, standing at a bus stop in Japan with his luggage in a backpack. He'd donned the ring Batman had given him – "from a friend," he said; which friend would that be? – and so far it was serving him well, though he was still looking out for any possible ambush. His cautious observations were interrupted by the bus coming to his stop.

"Are you here to take me to Yokai Academy?" Dick asked the driver.

"Are you here to attend Yokai Academy?" the driver asked back, his face partly concealed by the shadow emanating from the brim of his hat.

"Yeah," Dick replied.

"Then get on," the driver said, and Dick did exactly that, plopping down on a seat just behind and to the right of the driver, the better to watch him.

"Are we picking up anyone else, or is it just me?" Dick asked.

"No, it's just you," the driver replied. "We're going straight to Yokai Academy."

"You hear anything about all those disappearances?" Dick asked.

"Disappearances?" the driver echoed.

"Yeah, they were also supposed to attend Yokai Academy," Dick explained. "They even waited at this spot, too."

"Inquisitive kid, aren't you?" the driver remarked with a chuckle. "You better be careful how many questions you ask when you get to Yokai Academy. It might get you in trouble."

Dick smirked. "I'm good at getting out of trouble."

"Not this kind of trouble, you aren't," the driver rejoined, still chuckling. "Now hang on . . . it's going to be a wild ride."

Dick was sure he knew what a wild ride was, having been a passenger and later sometimes driver for Batman's sports car/assault tank hybrid that he'd affectionately dubbed the Batmobile. By the time the ride was over, he had to reevaluate what he thought of as a wild ride. Passing through an inter-dimensional tunnel would do that to someone.

"So . . . here you go," the driver said, having reached their stop. "Try not to get yourself killed. Yokai Academy is a very scary place."

"Thanks for the warning," Dick replied as he stepped off the bus, "but I can handle myself." Going up against the Joker and Two-Face tended to give a person a different definition of "very scary" than what most people had. Plus, he had a protective magic ring on his finger, so he wasn't that worried.

Looking around, Dick realized that the driver had left him in a creepy forest, albeit one still lit by daylight. Shrugging his shoulders, he trekked through the forest, heading up to Yokai Academy. As he walked, he heard the ringing of a bicycle bell and the sound of wheels accelerating toward him. It didn't take long for him to realize that someone had lost control of their bike and was about to crash into him. Acting quickly, Dick somersaulted backwards into the air, uncurling just enough to see what looked like a pink-haired girl in the girls' uniform for Yokai Academy. While still in midair, he grabbed her around her waist and pulled her off the bike, a relatively easy thing to do given how unable she was to control the bike. They landed on the ground, Dick making sure she fell on top of him to cushion her as the bike crashed into the farthest tree trunk still within visual range.

"Are you all right?" he asked the girl, who began to stir in his arms.

"I'm sorry . . ." she replied. "It's just . . . I'm anemic and then . . ."

"It's no problem," Dick said, brushing her lustrous pink hair aside so he could get a better look at her. _Whoa . . . she's really . . . pretty._

His musings were interrupted by the girl's panicked shout: "You're bleeding!"

Giving himself a brief once-over, Dick realized that he was indeed bleeding. When they'd landed so roughly on the ground, he'd cut his face on one of the sharper pebbles trying to cushion the girl as much as possible. "I've been injured a lot worse than this," he tried to reassure her. "I'll be ok."

The girl pulled out a handkerchief and began to dab at his bleeding cheek. It didn't take long, though, before her dabbing slowed, and she leaned closer to him, her emerald eyes giving him a half-lidded, smoldering gaze of desire. "I'm sorry . . ." she whispered. "It's just that . . . I'm . . ."

And then she bit him. On the neck. Hard enough to pierce through his skin (were those fangs?). Then she started sucking.

_A vampire!_ Dick thought, astonished. His high threshold for pain, trained into him by seven years of fighting crime on the hard and brutal streets of Gotham City, had made the bite, however surprising, hurt far less than it should. Of course, it was hurting less for a much different reason beyond his endurance. A warm sensation was spreading through his body as the girl sucked from the wound she had created, a sensation that was flowing quickly to certain lower extremities. He lifted his arms to grasp her waist, although whether it was to push her off or hold her close, he wasn't all that certain. A throaty rasp of a groan escaped his mouth, and the girl pulled away, her expression one of shock and horror.

"I'm sorry!" she exclaimed. "Did I hurt you? I didn't mean to . . . it's just . . ."

"You're a vampire and you needed blood," Dick replied, stating the perfectly obvious at this point. "You might want to ask permission next time, though."

"You mean you'll . . ." the girl uttered, stunned by what she'd just heard him say.

"You don't seem like a bad person," Dick commented. "It's no problem by me if you need blood to live, so long as you don't take it against someone's will." He smiled. "By the way, if we're going to be on that level so quickly, the least we could do is learn each other's names. I'll start. Dick Grayson." He put his hand out for her to shake, and she took it, helping him off the ground with surprising strength for one as delicate as she looked.

"Moka Akashiya," the girl introduced herself. "You look like you're a student at Yokai Academy."

"You look like one, too," Dick replied. "Are you?"

"Yeah," Moka admitted, blushing. "I'm sorry, it's just . . . your blood . . . it tastes so good, the texture, the flavor – it's like nothing I've ever had before."

"Thanks," Dick answered, smiling at her. "I work out, eat right . . . does great things for the blood."

Moka giggled, not because she thought he was funny, but because it was such a joy to meet someone so at ease with her despite her being a vampire.  
"We'd better hurry if we don't want to miss orientation," she said.

"Sure, but . . . what are we going to do about your bike?" Dick wondered.

"We'll worry about it later," Moka replied.

* * *

Orientation was nothing Dick hadn't seen or experienced before, save for the curious and intrigued stares he was getting from a lot of the girls around him. Now, Dick was aware he was an attractive young man, too many girls and women had shown him that already, but the stares he was getting verged a bit too much on the predatory for his comfort. He did notice, though, that Moka wasn't the only one with a unique hair color; there was one petite but very busty girl with blue hair tied back in a ponytail and accented with a frilly purple hairband with a yellow star as decoration. Another had long and rather messy lavender hair, a third had long and wavy aquamarine hair, and those were just the ones he spotted off the bat.

After orientation was over with, he went to the classroom where he'd meet his homeroom teacher, one Shizuka Nekonome. She was a cheery, youthful woman with her eyes squinting even through her glasses and had strawberry blonde hair with two tufts sticking up like cat ears. It gave Dick flashbacks to a certain thief who had long since made off with his mentor's heart in addition to all the gems and jewels she'd stolen in her career. He was doing his best to pay attention, knowing from all the time Bruce had trained him that almost anything could lead to a valuable clue or piece of evidence, but he was still floored when Nekonome declared that, "This school is for monsters!"

_Monsters?_ Dick thought, shocked and puzzled. _Is that why Bruce gave me this ring? Did he know what he was sending me into?_

Nekonome went on to explain the purpose of Yokai Academy, which was to help young monsters (called "yokai" in Japanese language) to successfully integrate into human society while concealing their true identities. It was a necessary skill to learn, given that humans dominated the world and were aided in doing so by powerful superhuman champions that were often called "superheroes." Given that some of those superheroes were powerful enough to lay waste to entire armies and many possessed abilities that would make them a match for even most yokai, integration and concealment was the best strategy for long-term survival.

"Screw that," a thuggish young man with long, shaggy brown hair and a fair amount of facial piercings scoffed. "I'm not afraid of those 'superheroes.' I'd wipe the floor with them, and then I'd do what I want with the hot ones before moving on to the rest of the stupid humans."

Another student scoffed at him. "That'd be a long list for you to go through. I doubt there are any _ugly_ female superheroes."

Dick bit back a growl at their exchange, but his fists clenched so tightly the knuckles had gone white with his growing rage. If this was the caliber of yokai that this school was trying to "civilize," then he'd have his work cut out for him in making sure scum like that couldn't touch innocent people.

"You ever been on the receiving end of heat vision? Or a ring with the power to create any kind of construct or effect the wearer can will into existence? Or a lasso that forces you to tell the whole truth and nothing but? Or punches thrown faster than the speed of sound?" Dick asked his thuggish classmate, who just glared back at him. "Oh, no? Nothing to say to that? Good. Shut up about thinking you're so bad you can walk all over the Justice League. They'd chew up and spit out a pathetic pile of garbage like you."

The thuggish classmate rose up as though ready to attack, and Dick's body coiled like a spring, ready to dodge or counterattack as well. "Enough!" came Nekonome's shockingly forceful voice. "We are not here to fight! We are here to learn how to live in peaceful coexistence because that is the only way we're going to survive! Saizo Komiya, sit down now! You, too, Richard John Grayson!"

Both the now-identified Saizo and Dick retreated into their seats, Saizo still glaring at Dick and Dick glaring right back. Before any further hostilities could ensue, a certain pink-haired vampire walked into the classroom. "Sorry I'm late! I got a little lost!"

"No problem, Moka Akashiya," Nekonome replied. "Feel free to take a seat!"

The male students were babbling semi-coherently about Moka, stunned by her incredible beauty. "Holy crap, look at her!"

"Yeah, she's so hot . . ."

"Such lustrous hair . . ."

"Such creamy skin . . ."

"Look at those legs . . ."

"Legs? What about those –!"

"That can't be a disguise! She's just too . . ."

"BEAUTIFUL!" the male students chorused, with the exceptions of Dick and Saizo.

"Settle down!" Nekonome shouted at them. "This is a place of learning!" She smiled sweetly at Moka. "Don't mind them, Miss Akashiya, just sit wherever you like."

"Ok," Moka assented, and started walking to the desk aisles when her eyes landed on Dick Grayson. "Oh, Dick! It's you! I'm so happy to see you!" She immediately leaped on him for a passionate hug, clutching him tightly to her not-inconsiderable bosom. This triggered another uproar from their male classmates, who were grumbling and cursing about Dick being so "lucky" as to have the hottest girl in Yokai Academy all over him, accompanied by death threats.

"I said, 'settle down!'" Nekonome shouted again at her grumbling and cursing male students. "How many times do I have to tell you?"

The male students quieted down quickly enough, and Moka sheepishly let go of Dick and moved into the desk and chair next to his. "Now, if we can all start learning already . . ." Nekonome remarked in a calmer, though annoyed voice.

* * *

After home period and morning classes were finished, it was time for lunch. Many students had their lunch in the cafeteria, while others had their lunch outside. Dick and Moka were among those having their lunch outside, with Moka keeping her arm interlinked with Dick's to hold him close while walking together. This definitely did not escape the notice of their fellow students, though there were plenty of jealous comments from the _female_ students as well as the male students.

Outside, they'd gone to the vending machine to pick up drinks. For Moka, Dick was getting a can of tomato juice, which she'd explained to him as being a substitute for blood that she drank back in the human world. Just as the vending machine had spat out the can of tomato juice in exchange for one 100-yen note, he heard Saizo accosting Moka.

"Come on, I bet you'd rather be with me than that wimpy punk over there," Saizo sneered.

"No, I'd rather be with Dick," Moka replied firmly.

"Can't take a hint, can you?" Dick remarked icily, having made it to Moka's side with her can of tomato juice. "She said no. You don't know what that means?"

Saizo grabbed Dick by the collar of his shirt and lifted him in the air. "You're not going to mock me twice. Stay out of my way if you know what's good for you."

"How about . . . no?" Dick replied, before thrusting his fingers toward Saizo's eyes. Instinctively flinching back, Saizo's grip loosened enough for Dick to slip free, revealing that his thrust had been a feint, and kick Saizo's legs out from under him, knocking him to the ground.

"How did you . . . ?" Saizo snarled.

"It's called knowing how to fight," Dick answered. He tossed Moka the can of tomato juice. "Come on, let's get out of here."

As Moka and Dick walked away, Saizo let out a furious growl at their backs. "You smug little punk . . . you think you can do that to me? You'll see. She'll be mine . . . and you'll be dead!"

* * *

Having gone up to the rooftop of the Academy to have their lunch, Moka was staring at Dick with awe in her eyes. "That was pretty impressive, what you did back there," she said.

"I got a lot of fight training before I came here," Dick replied. "But I'd rather hear about you. What's your story? I mean, you're really nice for a vampire."

"Oh, there isn't much to tell . . ." Moka responded shyly. "But I guess I can show you . . ." She undid the first few buttons of her uniform shirt and then spread it further open to reveal a silver cross with a red gem in the center dangling from a chain connected to a black choker around her neck. "This is to keep my real power sealed. If it's removed, I turn into a scary vampire, not so nice at all."

"Have you ever removed it?" Dick wondered.

"No," Moka admitted. "I've never been able to take it off."

"Well, vampire or not, I'd still like to be your friend," Dick said.

"You're the first person that's ever said that to me," Moka confessed with a blush on her face. "And that makes you really special . . . even besides your blood. You're my first."

_First what?_ Dick wondered. _First friend? First person she's drank blood from?_

"My first time drinking someone's blood straight from the source," Moka clarified. "I usually have to make do with preserved blood packs or tomato juice. You're my first person I've drank from, the flavor, the texture . . . it all combines into such an exquisite taste . . . I could fall in love with you, Dick Grayson."

Dick blushed. "Pretty unique way to fall in love."

"So what about you?" Moka asked. "What got you into fight training?"

"My parents died in an act of sabotage," Dick admitted. "Someone took me in and taught me how to fight, not to avenge my parents but to protect myself and others from the cruelty and injustice of the world around us. I owe my life and a lot more to that man. I don't know where I'd be if he hadn't done what he did for me."

"That sounds great," Moka replied absently, as though deep in thought.

"What's wrong?" Dick wondered.

"Cruelty and injustice . . . I know quite a bit about that," Moka confessed. "In school, nobody believed me when I said I was a vampire. They just thought I was trying to get attention and made fun of me all the time. I never had a single friend in that place. It's why . . . I hate humans."

Those last three words hit Dick like a bullet from one of Two-Face's guns. He had to admit, he'd noticed a lot of casual contempt for humans flung about by his classmates and fellow students, saying things that basically amounted to finding humans good for nothing except being killed and eaten, or raped and then killed and eaten in the case of the females. A lot of it stemmed from what sounded like thuggish arrogance, the belief that being a more powerful being entitled them to do what they wished with those they deemed weaker or inferior. Some of it stemmed from an oft-expressed viewpoint that humans would gladly do the same things to yokai if they learned yokai existed, so for them it was a matter of "do unto others before they do unto you." Sadly, given the corruption and depravity and injustice Dick had seen in his time as Robin and now Nightwing, he couldn't entirely fault his fellow students for thinking that way . . . even if he could still blame them for actually _acting_ on it. Lashing out at the world just because it caused them pain didn't exactly confer moral superiority to those doing the lashing out, especially given the innocents that got caught in the crossfire of their vengeful rampages.

"I can't say I blame you," Dick admitted. "Humans can be a cruel bunch. Then again, it's not like monsters can claim much of a moral high ground, either. You weren't there for this, but Saizo Komiya, that guy that was harassing you before, he said he'd gladly rape any human girl he found attractive enough, and after getting a look in his student profile, it sounds like he really would – and _did._ There's plenty of misery to go around, whether caused by humans or by monsters . . . but there's just as much kindness and goodness you can find among them, too. I see that in you, just as I saw it in the man who took me in after my parents died."

"You mean, the man who took you in was a human?" Moka deduced in an astonished tone.

"Yeah," Dick confessed. "He was the one responsible for my training and who taught me to use what I could do to protect other people from going through what I did. He's been to a lot of places, seen a lot of things beyond the experience of most humans, and it's given him a kind of enlightenment about how the world works and what can be done to change it. I won't deny that humans have done plenty of evil, but I'm not going to deny that they've done plenty of good, either."

"That man . . . sounds very kind, better than most humans I've met," Moka whispered, still astonished.

"You wouldn't know it from the way he usually acts, but he really is," Dick remarked with an admiring smile.

"Wait . . ." Moka said. "You said you looked in Saizo's student profile. How did you do that? I thought those weren't accessible to students."

"They're not," Dick replied. "I'm just good at getting into things. I used my free period to look around and check things out for myself. Another skill he taught me. Always be mindful of your surroundings, because you never know when you're walking into trouble or not."

"Who did he train you to fight?" Moka wondered.

"Monsters that prey on the innocent," Dick answered. "It doesn't matter if they're human or yokai."

* * *

Lunch ended soon enough, and classes resumed, finishing at mid-afternoon. Moka Akashiya had had a lot to think about since then, thanks to her new friend Dick Grayson. He said he'd been trained to fight monsters, and then said it didn't matter if they were human or yokai; a monster was anyone that preyed on the innocent from his definition. He also said he'd been raised by a human after his own parents were killed, and that humans had taught him how to fight to protect those that would be preyed upon by "monsters." It was a very beautiful-sounding ideal, but Moka didn't know if she had it in her to protect humans after being abused by them for so long.

As she went to the forest next to Yokai Academy to ponder this, she was being followed by Saizo Komiya, who had one thing on his mind. "Hey, Moka . . . what's a fine girl like you doing out here by yourself?" he sneered. "Very bad things can happen to pretty girls like you when you go by yourselves, so I should do my duty as a man and watch over you, especially since that wimp you were with won't."

"I don't need you to watch over me!" Moka retorted. "I'm just here to think!"

"Think about what?" Saizo sneered. "About how you'd rather trade up?"

"Get away from me!" Moka snapped.

"Aw, don't be like that . . ." Saizo teased, still leering at her. "I'm just trying to be friendly. We are classmates, after all . . . and I really get nervous around pretty girls like you."

"I know what you do around pretty girls," Moka countered defiantly. "Dick told me all about you."

"Really?" Saizo mocked. "And what does that wimpy pretty boy know about me?" He laughed. "No, I think I better show you that he doesn't know the half of what he's talking about!" As he said that, his muscles started expanding and even bulging, causing his school uniform to strain against them before ripping apart. An exoskeleton-like pattern of spikes began to develop around his exposed upper body, particularly on his shoulders and back.

Moka couldn't help herself. She screamed.

* * *

Meanwhile, Dick had indeed resumed his exploration of Yokai Academy and its grounds. This time, he'd changed out of his school uniform and into his Nightwing costume, a sleek black fireproof, bulletproof, and kinetic impact-dampening body armor. The otherwise pitch-black suit was accented by a blue V-stripe spread over his chest like the outstretched wings of a bird and extending down his shoulders and arms to stop at his middle fingertips. His face was concealed by a domino mask shaped like a bird, his eyes covered by opaque lenses with the latest in optical enhancement technology, up to and including a special tracking mode he'd nicknamed "Detective Vision."

Jarring him from his investigation into the murders of young men that were supposed to attend Yokai Academy was the sound of a girl's scream ringing through the air. He began to hurry, sprinting toward the forest from which he heard the scream emanating and darting around and between the trees with their eerily outstretched branches, like gnarled fingers in the darkening sky. With his speed and agility and the visual augmentations in his mask, it didn't take Nightwing too long before he homed in on the source of the scream – Moka, trapped in Saizo's long tongue as he'd transformed into an even uglier form than he'd reckoned. In Yokai Academy, students and faculty were to stay in human shape at all times to help them acclimate better to living in the human world, but it seemed that Saizo had no regard for that rule. Nightwing snarled as he accelerated, drawing his escrima sticks from behind his back in preparation to strike.

Saizo had thrown Moka into a tree after getting his lecherous tongue all over her. "Come on, baby, show me what you really look like!" he challenged her, as she tried to squirm away from him.

"Back off!" Nightwing shouted, dropping down from the tree on Saizo with both escrima sticks lit up by electrical sparks at their business ends, ends he jammed into Saizo's back, eliciting a scream of pain from him. As Saizo's body went into spasms, Nightwing flipped over his head and sprang over to Moka's side. "Come on, let's get out of here." He gently picked her up, putting her arm around his shoulder, and began to run with her.

"You . . . you helped me . . ." Moka uttered, astonished.

"Of course I helped you," Nightwing replied. "It's what I do. Help people."

"How . . . ?" Moka wondered.

"A little bit of agility, a little bit of ambush, a little bit of a shock," Nightwing answered in a whimsical tone that belied his terror for what Saizo could have done to Moka if he'd gotten there a few seconds later.

"Why?" Moka asked. "You're a human! I'm a monster! We don't go together! We'll never go together!"

"Because I've fought beside and befriended people who weren't human," Nightwing replied, putting aside his concern for how Moka had figured him out. "And trust me, they're some of the kindest, noblest, most goodhearted people I've ever had the pleasure of knowing and calling friends. It's why I believe there's still a chance for humans and yokai to come together, if we're willing to try."

Moka looked at Nightwing in wonderment, her heart touched by his words. Could she really bring herself to hope that he was right? That he was telling her the truth? Her pondering was disturbed when she turned to look behind them and saw Saizo charging at them like an enraged bull.

"You little bastard!" Saizo roared, his voice distorted by his transformation. "You think you can take her away from me? She's mine!"

Nightwing turned, slipping an explosive Birdarang out of one of his wrist cuffs and priming it before he threw it at Saizo. To his shock, the Birdarang barely pricked Saizo's armored flesh before falling off, but the detonation a second later was enough to throw Saizo off his feet. However, it was big enough and Nightwing and Moka were close enough that it knocked them off their feet a fair bit, too, and since they were overlooking a cliff . . .

. . . Nightwing had turned them so that he was taking the brunt of the slide down the cliff face, his suit giving him better protection than Moka's school uniform and exposed skin would. "Did you really mean what you said to me before?" she asked.

"Every word," Nightwing replied firmly. As they'd reached the bottom of the cliff, Saizo had recovered and was making his way toward them surprisingly fast for his size. Then again, having dealt with the Venom-powered criminal mastermind Bane before, Nightwing was no stranger to great size belying great speed and agility. He whirled to face Saizo, standing protectively before Moka, his electrified escrima sticks in hand . . . and something else, much to both his and Moka's shock.

The silver cross no longer dangling from her neck. "The seal . . . you broke it . . ." Moka uttered in astonishment.

"I'm sorry . . ." Nightwing barely had time to say before being nearly blown off his feet by the powerful energies expanding from Moka's body now that he'd removed her cross.

"What the hell is this?!" Saizo exclaimed, too stunned by Moka's expanding aura to press the attack he was about to make on Nightwing. Then the aura contracted and dispersed inside Moka, who had very drastically transformed from the delicate pink-haired girl they'd first known her as. This Moka had silvery white hair, narrowed red eyes with slit pupils like a cat's or a lizard's, paler skin, and a more imposing demeanor. However, Nightwing's trained eye for detail made it clear to him that her womanly attributes had expanded along with her power, more evident by the way she yawned and stretched her body. When she was finished doing that, she looked up at Nightwing and Saizo with a deadly smile.

"Is this what I was woken up for?" she asked, her voice much deeper and throatier than before.

"Even in your true form, you're sexy!" Saizo shouted, his lust overcoming his sense of fear and self-preservation from her terrifying aura. "So come here and be mine!"

The transformed Moka chuckled mockingly. "No, why don't you come here? You wanted to take me, right? So do it, then. Come and take me!"

The challenge to his pride did away with the last of Saizo's self-restraint, and he lunged for Moka, who just watched him with a contemptuous stare. "Scum like you would never be worthy of me in a million years," she snarled, raising one long leg for a swift, powerful kick that threw Saizo an ungodly distance back. "Know your place!"

Saizo was too stunned to do anything but mutter, "Yes, ma'am . . ." before passing out. That was when the new Moka turned her attention to Nightwing.

"You're the one who broke my seal," she said as she strode toward him, her hips swaying with her graceful movements in his direction. "And you're not dropping from sheer terror or sheer lust for me. That's very impressive, for a human. You really aren't like the others."

"I like to think I'm one of a kind," Nightwing remarked sardonically.

"And you have a way with words," the new Moka commented with a smirk, just as she'd reached him. "You fascinate me." She took the cross from him, although he didn't have such a firm grip on it due to still being astonished at Moka's transformation. "I'm not the same Moka you befriended. You'd better take care of her, for _your_ sake." She snapped the cross back onto the chain, and her aura began to recede and retract, as her hair darkened from white to its "usual" shade of bubblegum pink and her skin took on more color again. With the sudden contraction of her power, Moka fell into Nightwing's waiting arms.

"This is going to be a wild ride," Nightwing muttered to himself, as Moka had already passed out. "Start of a brand new adventure. What else will this crazy school throw at me?"

* * *

Endnotes: There you have it, the end of the first chapter of my new Rosario + Vampire crossover story. For those of you who are fans of my Kamen Rider Dragon Knight/Rosario + Vampire crossover Onyx and Vampire, I haven't given up on that story yet, and I've got a lot already planned out for it. It's just that for right now, I have to go where inspiration leads me, and inspiration has led me here.

For those wondering about the continuity of the DC side of this story, Dick Grayson has become Nightwing and is presently 19 years old; he just looks young enough to pass for someone still in high school. Jason Todd is Robin at this stage, and four years younger than Dick, and Bane and Batman have fought before, but not to the extremes of Knightfall or even The Dark Knight Rises.

As for my plans for this story, it's not just going to be a retread of the manga and anime; Nightwing is a very well-connected hero in the DCU, the heart of the DCU's hero community, in fact, and you will see heroes and villains alike make their appearances in this story. One of those villains, you might even see in my adaptation of the Witch's Knoll arc, as she happens to have similar goals to the villain there. As for heroes . . . well, I still have to reveal where and how Bruce got the warded ring to give to Dick for his protection, and who exactly is behind the murders of young men accepted to Yokai Academy. Until next time, hold tight and get set, because there is definitely more where this came from.


End file.
